The After Effect
by J. Hartin
Summary: The Lone Wanderer is alive. With the Enclave beating down the door, He has one choice: He must escape DC.
1. Revalation 21:6

**Prologue: Revelation 21:6**

Tom's hand hovered over the keypad. He didn't even know the password to activate this thing. Why didn't his father tell hi-. Tom knew then and there. It was so obvious. His father had told him his whole life. Not a year had gone by that he didn't formally recite the passage. The building quaked as the battle raged furiously outside the Rotunda. Tears welled in Tom's eyes as he dialled in the code. 2…1…6. Tom closed his eyes and whispered.

"Thanks…dad."

His finger fell atop the enter button and the Rotunda shuddered. Tom felt the radiation Pass through his body like a deadly wave. It boiled his insides and burned his flesh. He managed to stay on his feet and turn around. Sarah Lyons was at the window. He grit his teeth as he took small weak steps over to her. She put her hand on the glass. Tom returned the gesture as best he could. He raised his hand to the glass but with his strength draining away, it slid from the glass and hung limply at his side. His father told him the dangers of radiation and how it changed the body. It worked its way to the bone changing the DNA. It wouldn't matter. Tom knew it was over. His last fleeting breaths were unbearably painful and his lungs shuddered from the effort. His legs buckled and gave. He fell to his knees, the power armour clanged against the grate floor. His own body soon felt heavy to him and the pain wracked his whole body. He leaned up against the cold brick wall. The cold was soothing against his feverish flesh but it quickly warmed. In an attempt to move himself to a cooler part of the wall he fell back onto the grate. His head swam and voices echoed in his thoughts. Some he knew, others were enigmas of a forgotten past. Some of these voices stood out. His mother's and father's.

"Our son." His mother's voice was weak and exhausted. "Our beautiful son."

"It's a big world out there son, but what about you, what kind of person are you going to be." His father seemed so close. And one last time the passage was spoken.

"I am Alpha and Omega. The beginning and the end."

Thomas died.

_Lady's and gentlemen of the wasteland, this is Three-dog. I have only sad news for you. We have just been informed from the Brotherhood of Steel that the lone wanderer from vault 101 is dead. After a brave battle against colonel Autumn and his heavy-armoured lackeys, our lone wanderer succumbed to radiation while activating the purifier in the Jefferson memorial. All of you out in the wasteland have this brave soul to thank for what is bound to be a new age in our capital wasteland. Thanks to his bravery, fresh, clean water will now flow in abundance through rivers and streams all over the capital wasteland. The lone wanderer sacrificed his life for the good of not just the capital, but also the entire world. From the day he emerged from the vault, people from every corner of the capital have heard his name. He has helped countless individuals with his bravery and devotion to the good fight. For this we thank you lone wanderer and may your soul rest in peace. _

Didn't he?


	2. Reincarnation

Chapter 1: Reincarnation

The jolt came suddenly and Tom opened his eyes. He sucked breath fast and hard into his aching lungs. His body felt numb. He tried to move but was unsure of his motions. He worked his arms and pushed himself slowly into a sitting position. A thin plastic sheet covered his body, which was lacking any clothing. Panicked, he gripped the sheet and flung it off of him. His vision was blurry and his head spun as he moved and he fell off the elevated bed to the poorly tiled floor. He lifted his head and drops of blood fell from his nose. He shook his head to clear his vision while he looked around. His joints cracked. Tom felt as if he had been in a very uncomfortable position for a very long time. The poor lighting made it all the harder to see where he was. It looked like a hospital wing or an infirmary of some sort, but then wouldn't the light be better? The ground quaked. Hard. Tom heard metal instruments clang and glass bottles shatter on the floor. He crawled over the cold, damp tiles looking for a solid structure to lift his body from like a chair or a wall. After moments of searching, he found the wall he was looking for. His joints cracked again as he pushed and pulled his way to his quivering legs. In fact his entire body was shaking and his breath was shallow. He leaned his shoulder against the wall for support as he felt for the switch on his pip-boy for the light. Instead of touching cold steel, his hand caressed the cold flesh of his bare wrist. Too exhausted to care, he dropped his arm to his side and felt along the wall for a light switch of some sort. His hand rested upon a protrusion on the wall that felt quite similar to a light switch. He curled his finger over the small metal switch and lifted. Blinding fluorescent light flooded the small room and he was blinded. He blinked his eyes rapidly to clear his vision. Well at least he found the lights.

His eyes soon adjusted to the white light and he tore his gaze from the tiled floor. He wished he hadn't looked. At least twenty covered bodies filled the room and he now knew what had inhabited the glass bottles that had smashed earlier. Wet organs now littered the floor along with broken glass and the medical instruments. Tom wasn't in an infirmary. He was in a morgue. His heart began to pound and he anxiously fidgeted with the door handle trying desperately to get it open. The locking mechanism turned and the side flaps opened. He pushed the door down into the slot and fell through. Tom managed to maintain his balance but had to lean heavily against the brick wall. Sweat poured off his face now. Large drops ran of his face and peppered the floor sending out small echoes down the hall. Tom found that his throat was achy and dry as he swallowed heavily. Chills ran up his spine as a draft washed over him and he remembered that he was nude. He looked down the halls for anything to wear while at the same time wondering why anyone would leave clothes in an open hallway. After a minute or two of fruitless searching he saw that each of the doors in the hallway had crudely formed words next to them scratched into the walls. Tom followed the doors down the shorter hall until he came to a door bearing the universal cross of an infirmary. Tom walked to the metal door. The joints were corroded from rust but clearly still operable. He gripped a hand grimy and sweaty from the crawling he did earlier around the old doorknob. The squeaky knob turned and the door creaked open slowly. Through the threshold was a relatively clean room obviously cleaned for medical use. Pain wracked Tom's body as he entered the sterile infirmary.

Tom pulled a small vacuumed sealed package of underwear that included a small cotton shirt and boxer shorts out of a locker in the corner of the infirmary. After further searching he found an old field medic uniform. After sliding into the clean clothes, something caught Tom's eye. A familiar sign was stencilled on the wall in the infirmary. A sword pointed into the ceiling backed by what looked like wings and three gears fitted together. The Brotherhood of Steel. Memories of Tom's earlier endeavours flooded his mind. Tears welled in his eyes as memories of his father overwhelmed him. His hands were balled into fists and he was shaking. Sweat again poured off his face. His lungs heaved in and out fast as his anger intensified. He gritted his teeth as his nails pierced his palms. He leaned heavily against another wall and wept. He tried so hard to keep his father safe and still he couldn't save him. Tom's anger took him over and he smashed his fist against the brick wall. The bricks must have been brittle as his hand punched a fist-sized hole right through the wall. After a minute just staring at the wall he pulled his hand out. He looked at the hole for a minute before turning his gaze to his hand. A massive deep gash ran to the bone on his hand. Then the pain set in and blood seeped heavily from the wound. Tom squeezed his hand shut then opened it wide in an attempt to ease the pain. He looked over the infirmary for a medical supply closet. He saw one over by a desk and stepped over to it. He discovered it was locked and grabbed a scalpel. He stuck it in the keyhole and forced the lock. He opened the cabinet and looked over the various chems that where stored on the shelves. Tom rifled through the boxes until he came across a box full of syringes filled with med-x. He also grabbed a packed of gauze and a towel. He closed the cabinet and set them on the desk. He dabbed the blood off his hand and unravelled a generous amount of gauze. He went to wrap his hand but stopped. There was no wound. More as a reflex than anything, he looked at his other hand. Not a scratch on either hands. He began to sweat again and looked at the towel he used to wipe off the blood. There was blood on the towel, so why wasn't there any blood wounds on his hand. The pain that had once been there before had all but vanished. Was he going insane? There was no explanation as to how his hand could just hea-.

An explosion shook the foundations of the infirmary. It sounded far away but Tom's mind already was racing. His eyes swept the room looking for a weapon and his legs wanted to move. Then out of nowhere a voice penetrated the silence.

"All available units report to east wing, I repeat all available Brotherhood soldiers report to the east wing."

_So there are Brotherhood here._ Tom thought.

Tom looked around the room and was reminded of the morgue. Did they actually think he was dead? How long was he out? What happened to the purifier? What happened to Sarah? Tom let out an exasperated sigh and turned to leave just as two Brotherhood soldiers entered with an injured soldier. He was bleeding and had severe plasma burns. The steel on his suit near the impact point was melted away and other bits were fused to his skin. Tom could tell even through their masks that they were giving him an awkward look. He couldn't really blame them. He was pale looked like a corpse himself. After a short pause Tom opened his mouth to speak and then one of them cut him off.

"You the doc?"

In all fairness, Tom had an extensive knowledge of medical procedures and treatments, at least as much as any wasteland doctor. He had treated more than one person with serious injuries and was certain he could help this man with something as common as plasma burns.

"…Yeah."

They brought the injured man over to the operation table. Tom started by removing the man's armour. It was at this moment that he discovered that it was a woman. Her suit mic had shorted out and when he took off her helmet she was screaming. He used a scalpel to cut away her underwear where there were burns. Some of her clothing was fused to her flesh and could not safely be removed. Tom grabbed a dry towel and dabbed at the wounds. It came back bloody and hot.

"Get me some med-x."

Tom felt med-x land in his palm. He popped the cap and pressed the needle into her arm. Her screaming didn't stop but it was significantly lessened. Tom placed some dressing onto the majority of her wound and he looked up at one of the soldiers.

"Anymore Med-X?"

Again, a quick reaction from the soldiers. The small syringe was soon firmly in Tom's grip. He leaned down next to the girl, who couldn't have been more than seventeen, and spoke softly.

"I'm going to give you another shot, so just relax, okay?"

She obeyed. Tom pressed the needle into her arm with little difficulty and pressed down on the plunger. Her eyes rolled back and her breathing became deep and slow. Tom let out a sigh and looked at the soldiers.

"She's going to be fine."

The soldiers then imitated his sigh. Tom placed the surgical tools in a tray of water and rested himself on his arms. His shoulders slumped on the desk. Tom had felt shaken, but much better than when he had awoken. His body no longer shivered and his thinking was clear. It was time to leave.

"Wait a minute, you're that wanderer aren't you?"

The soldier's sudden question surprised Tom.

"You are aren't you? But I could've sworn you were-"

"Do you know where I could find Sarah Lyons?" Tom exclaimed.

"Uh… yeah. She's in the briefing room."

Tom and the soldier stood staring at each other.

"Which is…!"

"Oh, it's uh…upstairs. Third door on the left."

Tom bolted out of the room. The metal grating floor clanged loudly under his feet as he raced down the hall. He had to find Sarah and ask her what happened. Tom had remembered the keypad and typing in the pass code. He remembered the radiation bombarding his body and he remembered…dying. But what happened afterwards? John reached the top of the stairs and turned left. Door one: supply closet, door two: boiler room, door three: briefing. Tom halted at the door. It was an old wooden door with intact glass. The wood showed obvious signs of decay and the knob was rusted. Voices emanated from behind the door. Tom heard Sarah's voice.

"Eden is gone but more importantly, so is Colonel Autumn. This means that the Enclave are disorganized, giving us a serious tactical advantage. This doesn't mean, however, that they are any less dangerous. The Enclave are desperate now and as they say desperate times call for desperate measures. They know we're here and they'll likely hit us with everything they have."

Tom gripped the doorknob and turned it. He felt the mechanism give and the door opened. Paladins and knights turned to look at who had entered. Among them was Paladin Gunny. The drill sergeant only had two words to say.

"Holy Shit."

Some of the soldiers wouldn't break eye contact. Others looked over to Sarah Lyons who was staring wide-eyed at him. Gunny spoke up again.

"Say, weren't you dead?"

"Shut up, Gunny!" Sarah exclaimed.

Other than that Sarah was speechless. She slowly walked towards him as if he was a spectre coming back to haunt her. Tom raised his hand to his head to run it through his hair only to find that he had none. His guess was that his hair must have fallen out en masse when he was bombarded with radiation.

"We…thought you were…" Sarah whispered.

She covered her hand to her mouth. This soon changed as she regained her posture.

"Get this man to the infirmary."

Tom sat on the gurney annoyed with the large mass of medical machinery attached to his person. He heard whispering and the nervous hypotheses of a few other doctors that surrounded him. He felt like an animal. An animal locked in a cage made of doctors. Nobody seemed to be actually paying attention to him. All the docs were hunched over their fancy machines scratching their greying beards and speaking in their mysterious medical tongues. When Tom performed medical procedures he spoke in plain English looking for the simplest solution. Had they never heard the expression sometimes the simplest solution is the best? Tom had a headache and his mind was wandering from his main line of thought. Someone stuck him with a needle and took a blood sample. Tom saw a glint of power armour and turned to face Sarah. She looked him in the eyes and chuckled.

"You just don't die do you?"

"I have a knack for stuff like that."

"Well good because we may still need to use you."

Tom wasn't sure to be happy to see her or pissed off at that last comment. A doctor turned to the duo.

"Commander Lyons?" The doc's high-pitched voice was irritating. "There's something I need to show you."

The doc kept eyeing Tom nervously. Sarah must have noticed this because she looked at the doc and then at Tom.

"Tom's a big boy, I'm sure he can handle whatever you're going to throw at him." She winked at him.

"Um…al-alright then." The doc swallowed hard. "Right after we took blood from him, we found that his blood was irradiated with what should have been a fatal level." The doc took a handkerchief out of his pocket and dabbed his sweaty forehead. "We also to a small skin sample. It wasn't so much what we got from the sample as what we got from the wound we left. The incision sealed almost instantly. We feel that young Thomas must have gone through a very serious genetic mutation. This mutation slowed his heart to such a pace that we mistook him for a corpse. However on the more important side of things, his cells are multiplying at an exponential rate. This means he heals almost instantly. Th-The very miniscule probability of a mutation this profound occurring is nothing short of unbelievable."

Tom's thoughts strayed to a comic book he read as a child. A man was bombarded with radiation and gained super powers. The idea was preposterous. But he asked anyway.

"So what are you saying, I'm some kind of super hero?"

The doc cleared his throat and straightened his duct-taped glassed. "Um, no far from it. You may heal faster, but you're far from invincible. I must do more tests. We need to keep Thomas in quarantine until we find out if he is rad-."

An explosion quaked the facility hard and a crackly voice from the PA system pierced the air.

"Enclave have breached our defences. I repeat, the Enclave are entering the facility."

"Oh dear." The doc mumbled.

Sarah walked over to the intercom and pounded the button.

"How much time before they reach the infirmary?"

A voice crackled through the intercom.

"Ma'am, we may be able to hold them off for twenty minutes at most. If you have a plan I think you should act now."

She switched off the intercom and mumbled.

"Oh, I have a plan alright."

She turned to Gunny.

"Gunny, take Tom to the armoury and get him a rifle."

"Ma'am?" Gunny replied.

"He's taking the tunnels."


	3. The Threshold

Chapter 2: The Threshold

Gunny stared wide-eyed at Sarah.

"Sarah, you've got to be joking."

Sarah shot gunny an angry glance.

"You got a better idea, Gunny?"

"Sarah, that's suicide going into those tunnels."

Tom spoke up.

"Tunnels? What tunnels? The Memorial doesn't have any tunnels."

They both looked over at Tom. Gunny had a grim look on his face while Sarah had a look of pitying exasperation. She sighed and looked thoughtfully at him.

"I guess we should probably explain some of the current events to you."

Tom raised an eyebrow.

"Gunny'll explain everything you need to know on the way, I have to get back to the barricade."

Gunny put a hand on Tom's shoulder.

"Come on."

Tom and Gunny took off down the hall. Tom faintly heard a shout from Sarah. _Good luck_ she had said. The metal grating clanged loudly under their feet as they jogged down the corridor. Through the clanging, Tom listened to Gunny as he explained everything.

"After you…_died_, we ran you about a mile or so out northwest to one of our secure bunkers."

The ground quaked under their feet.

"Secure?"

Gunny gave him an agreeing grunt.

"You don't know the half of it. Just when we think we've locked down the bunker and can pretty much piss in the Enclave's face, we open up a lower chamber deep in the bunker. The place is dark as fuck, can't see a damn thing. We send a team down there, to clear the area of whatever might be down there. One guy comes back. Half dead. With half his fuckin' face missing. The guy was ripped right out of his armour."

"So you think it was some ferals?"

"Man, I wish. I wish it was some measly little ferals, but I'm telling you. Whatever's down there, it ain't no pack of ferals."

"So what happened to the survivor?"

"He died of his wounds, I guess. Never did find the other two. Then again we didn't really try. Man, the things that guy told us before he bit it, we didn't even glance back in that hole, we just shut the fuckin' door."

Two BOS soldiers jogged down the hall the other way hefting heavy weapons. Tom's first thought was _major overkill_. The first soldier was carrying a Rockwell CZ53 minigun. The subsequent soldier was hefting a gattling laser along with a fat man strapped to his back by a leather belt. A mini-nuke was already placed in the hydraulic compression delivery system. Gunny slid to a halt outside a blast door. A glowing keypad sat dormant on the wall next to the door. Gunny keyed in a few numbers and the door split into three and slid apart. Tom's mouth dropped open and his hands dropped to his sides. Shelves upon shelves stacked with pristine weaponry. The armoury could have supplied the entire BOS Platoon stationed here twice over.

"Over here." Gunny spoke up.

He walked over to the shelves and pulled a gun case off of one of the shelves. The case resembled a grey briefcase with unintelligible faded words on the side. The latches on the case clacked open and Gunny lifted the top. What lay inside shone like gold. The alloy was spotless, the gun was unused and preserved. On the end of the barrel was a large silencer shining with the same brilliance as the majestic weapon. The weapon was lacking a stock. Tom considered the accuracy reduction and decided he would compensate with a somewhat risky firing position. A scope was mounted just above the trigger of the assault rifle. Gunny gripped the rifle and shimmied it out of its interior casing. He then pulled a steel grey clip off the shelf and slid it in. He looked over at Tom and grinned.

"This is the R91 Infiltrator. Used for BlackOps back in 2062." His grin faded. "Tom, you're not gonna be able to get through those tunnels with brute force, it simply isn't feasible. First of all, you can't see. But if you take a look through that scope and press the button on the left side…"

Tom brought the scope to his eye and slid his finger over the button. Suddenly, the scope view lit up with a bright green glow. The light was bright enough to make him squint and take his eye away from the telescopic sight.

"Yeah, it may be a little bright here" Gunny said "but in that place, it's just right."

Tom looked at him sharply.

"Tom, it's pretty obvious why we're not giving you a light, however, we are going to give you these."

Gunny reached under the counter and pulled up a wooden box full of small cylindrical canisters.

"Flares?" Tom asked

"You guessed it." Gunny replied.

"Well if you're giving me flares then why not just give me a lamp or something."

"Those things are sensitive to light. Like, real sensitive. Our lamps would only attracts them, but these babies." Gunny ran pat his hand on the box. They light up like an A-Bomb. They'd melt the eyeballs right out of 'em."

"How do you know? I thought you never saw those thing."

"I saw them once. I was on patrol down here a few days ago and I can see them through the small window. They shy away from the light like it hurts them or something. Their skin blister if they even come close."

Tom was sceptical at best. But Gunny seemed to be pretty sure of himself.

"Look. They're plasma-based and use a molecular compression solution. This means that the plasma that's usually a liquid matter stays solid and therefore can be used in such a way.

Tom picked a flare up and looked it over. Aside from it being an old steel cylindrical object, two red arrows were stencilled on the side and pointed in opposite directions. _Well, at least _that_ says it all._

"To activate it all you have to do is twi-."

"I got it, Gunny don't worry. This'll be the least of my problems."

Tom tossed the flare back into the box and picked up the rifle. He grabbed an old and partially rusted clip off the shelf and slotted it into a leather supply bag hat hung on a hook next to the shelf.

"You're gonna need more than that." Gunny said nonchalantly.

Tom flashed him a look and without looking, grabbed another clip. He opened the bag without breaking his gaze of Gunny and dropped it next to the other clip. Gunny sighed. It was clear that he was unimpressed with Tom's conservative behaviour.

Tom was getting tired of the slow pace at which this entire operation was running. He grabbed the rack of full clips and dumped them into the sack. He then marched over to one of the several medkits that hung on the wall and ripped them open. Tom dropped the bag on the ground and grabbed several handfuls of medical supplies including med-X, stimpaks, gauze and for some reason a few bottles of whiskey. He dropped the supplies in the bag and grabbed a belt of grenades.

"When do you plan to use those?" Gunny asked flabbergasted.

Tom shot him a glance. Gunny knew all too well of Tom's obsessive use of explosives. He was able to make effective explosives out of just about anything from concussion grenades out fire extinguishers to incendiary bombs out of several tanks of flamer fuel.

"You're fuckin insane you know that?" Gunny blurted.

Tom chuckled.

Gunny walked to the door. "Yeah laugh all you want ya fucking arsonist you're gonna get us all killed one day." He sighed "Listen I'll be at the threshold when you're done packing. It's just down the hall, you can't miss it. Tom stuffed several flares into his pack and grabbed the rifle. He slid the rusty door aside and started down the hall. _What could be down there that's so dangerous?_ Tom hefted the pack onto his shoulder and jogged faster. _The faster I get this done, the better._

The _threshold_ as it was called was a huge metal door that rivalled those used for vaults. The only difference was that this one was a blast door that parted in the center rather than rolling aside…and it was covered it blood and rust. Gunny must have noticed Tom eyeing the blood.

"It's not like things haven't got through before, we just don't really get a good look at 'em."

"Why not?"

Gunny looked up at the ceiling. Tom followed suit. Above them, two heavy minigun turrets scanned the door. These weren't of the portable variety either. Where there was usually a small canister for holding the small 5mm rounds, was now a hulking crate at least as tall as Tom and twice as wide. This was not a standard minigun that you see in the wasteland.

"Now, do you think that there's much left after those babies get through with them?"

Tom stood in awe under the immense weapons. Gunny gave him an amused look.

"50 Cal. Vulcan cannons. They're old but reliable. We hooked them up to a couple of sensor modules and modified it to track erratic heartbeats. Those things have inhumanly fast pulses so they won't mistake you for one of them." Gunny scratched his head. "At least I think so."

"How reassuring. Anything else?"

"Yeah, there's an old armoury down there. It should have a few little toys down there for you."

You sure it hasn't already been looted?"

"No, but don't you think its worth a look?"

"Point taken, now open the door."

"Whoa, hold up. Now, your objective." Gunny spoke sharply. "Through VPM or vibration pulse mapping scanning, we were able to find out that the other end of these tunnels are connected to the lab of Dr. Felix Sinclaire."

"Who?"

"That's what I said, apparently he's this amazing scientist slash engineer slash inventor slash weapons developer."

"Sure does a lot of stuff considering he isn't known."

"True enough, but anyways, that's beside the point. You're gonna want to find a large blast door marked with fluorescent paint. That's Sinclaire's lab."

"How's he going to know its me?"

"There's an intercom next to the door, just hit the button and tell him who you are."

Tom paused and thought the plan over. Suddenly the complex shook violently.

"Tom, we don't have time for this, in case you forgot we're under attack."

"Okay, okay, pop the hatch."

Gunny took a deep breath and turned to the engineer manning the console near the door and nodded. The man nodded back and tapped at his keyboard.

"Arms at the ready soldiers!" Gunny barked.

BOS soldiers crouched with rifles aimed at the reinforced steel doors.

Suddenly a loud high pitch ringing emanated from a bell near the blast door. A spinning light circled above the door. Dust fell from the ceiling as the blast door slowly parted to reveal a black abyss. Dark figures swam in the blackness momentarily before disappearing deeper into the tunnel.

"Remember when I said that we never did an autopsy?" Gunny said.

"Yeah."

"That wasn't exactly true. After a barrage from the vulcans, we get one of our guys to clean up. Once we found one of there uh…balls."

"Balls?"

"You know. Balls."

"Yeah so?"

"Zero sperm count."

"Ah, so even if they did mate they still couldn't reproduce."

"Exactly."

"Okay so their numbers are low, so there really shouldn't be much resistance, right?"

"Theoretically."

"Right. Well, I guess I'm out of here."

Tom slung his bag over his shoulder and unslung his rifle and cocked it. A high-pitched whine emanated from the night vision scope as he activated it.

"One last thing, Gunny."

"Yeah?"

"Where's my pip-boy?"

"Your what?"

"The thing that was on my wrist."

"Oh…destroyed."

"Fuck."

"You'll be fine and I'm sure the good doctor can hook you up with something."

"Fine, I guess that'll have to do."

"And Tom." Tom glanced over at Gunny. "Be careful down there, you're on your own."

Tom nodded and stepped towards the abyss. It didn't matter how close Tom got. The inky black seemed to swallow the light. Tom took a deep breath and closed his eyes, and with that, took his first step into the darkness.


	4. Infernal Darkness

Chapter 3: The Tunnels

"Good luck, Tom. I wish you didn't need it."

Gunny's words were barely audible over the blast door's closing mechanism. Tom felt the vibrations in his stomach. The door finished its symphony of loud sanctity-disturbing noise with a deafening smash as it connected with the ground. Sweat ran down Tom's face as he scanned the tunnels for any movement.

…Nothing.

The crash being the last thing Tom heard left him with the sense of deafness. The tunnels were quiet. Not a sound except that of the rapid thumping of his pulse and the unsteady inhalation of breath. Tom suddenly felt very vulnerable in his current position. His head whipped from one direction to another looking for a way out of the inky blackness. His sight did him no good. No matter where his eyes fell upon he saw nothing but the black nothingness of an endless abyss. It was as if he had walked not into another room, but another universe where only darkness thrived, feeding on the souls of the lost and condemned in an endless spiral of pain and agon— _For Christ's sake shut the fuck up!_

Tom shook his head, ridding himself of any further images of doom and despair. If he lost it here he was as good as dead. _Priorities Tom priorities. _He thought to himself keeping his mind from wandering. _Need to see. The scope!_ Tom suddenly remembered the weight in his right hand. He brought the rifle up to his shoulder and felt for the button. He took his eye away from the scope and looked vainly for the button. He was rewarded with the click of the switch and a high-pitched whine as the eye of the scope glowed an eerie green. _The most beautiful green he had ever seen._ He brought his eye back up to the scope. The range on the scope was limited but he could see something down the hall. A small white figure crouched at the other end. Tom's grip tightened on the trigger. It looked human. An emaciated, white skin and bones figure that was crouching over another bulkier bloody figure. It lowered its deformed head down to the mass and sunk its jagged uneven teeth into it, ripping up a large chunk of the substance. _Aim for the centre of the mass._ He aligned the scope crosshair on the chest of the ghoulish figure. But it was true that these things were not ghouls in the sense. From what he could see, and despite the dark he could see a lot, the eyes were pitch black. No pupils just dark globes in its sockets. Its numerous razor sharp teeth were stuck out at all angles. It had no hair and a large skull. And the last detail he noticed was that the creature was indeed naked.

The creature stopped its chewing suddenly and growled. It slowly raised its head to fix Tom with a stare that made his aim falter. It opened its grotesque maw and Tom actually heard the deep intake of air. With full lungs it paused, still as a statue, boring its gaze deep into Tom's eyes. Suddenly it unleashed a horrid scream. Tom's whole body shook and the rifle fell from his grasp. He fell to his knees and covered his bleeding ears. The pain was unbearable and the screeching seemed to last an eternity. Tom couldn't move it was as if the creature had paralysed him with that screech. His heartbeat was erratic and he was quivering like a child. His breathing was uneven and he could only stare as the creature rose to its feet. But instead of rushing towards him with the intention of ripping him apart, it turned to its right and disappeared down a corridor. Tom didn't rise back to his feet. He remained in that crouching position for minutes quivering. This had happened before on much smaller a scale, where fear gripped at his heart and he wished nothing more than to be back in the safety of his vault. _Don't fuck this up_ he thought as he quickly regained his composure and felt for his rifle. His hand closed over the cold hard steel of the gun and he plucked it out of the darkness. As little as it did, the rifle's weight was still reassuring in his hands. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, swearing to god that the backs of his eyelids were brighter than this fucking tunnel. He had a job to do and he was not about to give up after just walking through the front door.

No doubt he was afraid, but Tom knew better than to let his fear get the better of him. He knew that the more he faced, the more terror he felt, the stronger he got. The strong glow of the night scope strengthened his resolve. He cracked a grin feeling the confidence build in him. He looked down the tunnel and his prior confidence crumble to dust. Where one once stood now three creatures were situated at the end of the hall staring blankly at him. Tom's ears hurt like hell from one of those things screaming at him from the other end of the tunnel. He was pretty sure that if three decided to sing him a song, his head would explode. Keeping that in mind, he slowly reached into his bag and pulled out some gauss. Quickly, but discreetly he ripped off two long pieces and rolled them into small wads. He twisted them into his ears hoping that they would do something to block out some of the harmful noise. One of the creatures cocked its head at him and began to inhale. _Fuck that_, Tom thought and quickly levelled his rifle popping off three rounds. A muffled _fupp fupp fupp_ was all the rifle emitted as it spat out three rounds. Two rounds tore through the chest of one of the creature as the third found a new home in the roomy skull of another. The two fell silently to the ground. Tom wasn't about to stay in one place. He bolted up the tunnel taking care that he not trip on anything. The final beast did the same taking off from its crouched position, running full speed towards tom screeching all the way. The gauss plugs were working as Tom no longer felt the urge to fall to his knees and babble like a frightened child. Tom heard the thumps of the deceivingly heavy footsteps of the creature that ran towards him. No longer in the mood to play chicken, Tom opened up with his rifle punching several rounds through various body parts of the thing. Its scream became a gurgling, choking sound as it fell, sliding to stop. Tom slowed and finally stopped. He knelt beside the creature and looked it over. As he thought, it was pale while and disfigured. What he had not noticed before was that it stood nearly eight feet tall. Tom detached his clip and eyed the number of rounds left inside. Twelve. Feeling the weight of the other clips boosted Tom's shattered confidence. He rose to his feet looking for the most promising of the foreboding tunnels. _Eenie meenie minie MO!_ He sprinted as quietly as possible through a passage to his left. The NV goggles did wonders as he made his way down the stretch. He kept low, looking all around making sure he wasn't followed. However he didn't notice passing by the hunched forms of several large creatures on his way through. But they saw him.


End file.
